Dorian Yates HIT
By Dorian Yates · From Original Source
Dorian Yates' Blood & Guts training as he describes it: four days a week, each muscle once a week, one all-out working set per exercise after one or two warmups. Shoulders, triceps and traps; back and rear delts; chest and biceps; legs on Friday. Upper-body sets go to failure at about 6-8 reps, legs at 12-15. Each week, beat last week by a rep; at the top of the range, add weight. With a training partner, he took one or two lifts per body part past failure with forced reps and negatives.
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What is Dorian Yates HIT?
Dorian Yates won six Mr. Olympia titles, 1992 to 1997, on what became known as Blood and Guts training: four sessions a week, each muscle trained once every six to seven days, and one all-out working set per exercise. Every lift still starts with warmups; only the final set goes to failure. Until late 1992 he did two working sets, the second about 15% lighter, and after long talks with Mike Mentzer he cut it to one. The one-set version is the one here.
This Dorian Yates workout comes from his own posts and dated 1992 and 1993 logs on his brand's blog, DY Nutrition. Monday is shoulders, triceps and traps: Smith machine press, seated dumbbell laterals, one-arm cable laterals, a shrug, one-arm and straight-bar pushdowns, then two sets each of crunches and reverse crunches. Tuesday is back and rear delts: pullover, reverse-grip pulldown, the Yates row, a one-arm machine row, a rear-delt machine and hyperextensions. Thursday is chest and biceps: incline barbell press, low-incline Smith press, incline flyes, cable crossovers, incline dumbbell curls and EZ-bar curls. Friday is legs: leg extensions, leg press (his 1993 leg log has Smith machine squats there), hack squat, lying leg curls, stiff-leg deadlifts, then standing and seated calf raises. The order and Friday legs are his; the other weekdays are Durata's. He names traps and rear delts but no lift for them, so the shrug and rear-delt machine are our picks.
Is Dorian Yates HIT right for you?
Durata files this as advanced because of the working set. It only works if you can take a set to real failure, the rep that will not go up in good form, and then stop. A training partner helps: Yates used forced reps, assisted reps and extra negatives past failure, but only on one or two lifts per body part, and the lift notes mark which. Most of the split is machines and cables, so a failed rep ends on the stops rather than on you.
How progression works
Warmups are worked out from your working weight, 10 reps each. Before the first lift for most body parts, and before the leg press, you do two, at 50% and 75%. Most later lifts get one at 75%, and the cable laterals, straight-bar pushdowns, crossovers and EZ-bar curls get none. Then the one working set: 6-8 reps on upper-body lifts, 12-15 on legs, 10-12 on standing calves and 6-8 on seated calves. On the low-incline Smith press the working set is a rest pause, as in his 1993 log: to failure, a few deep breaths, then one more rep, logged as a miniset. Rest Pause sets don't count toward PRs in Durata, so that lift won't set one. Rest follows his tips, 45-60 seconds for biceps and triceps (Durata uses 60) and 2-3 minutes for big movements (150 seconds). The goal is one more rep than last week: if he got 11 on hack squat, nothing less than 12 would do. When your set reaches the top of its range, Durata adds weight next time: 2.5 kg (5 lb), or 5 kg (10 lb) on the leg press and hack squat. Yates gives no load step, so that number is the app's. Fall short and you keep the weight. There is no deload in his words or in this build, and the week repeats with no end date.
Durata runs this progression for you — warmups are worked out from your first working set, each session's target carries over from what you logged last time, and the weight moves when you hit or miss the prescribed reps.
Dorian Yates HIT — every set, every session
Grey sets are warmups; their % is of set 1. AMRAP = as many reps as possible on the sets marked AMRAP.
Shoulders, Triceps & Traps
| Exercise | Sets × Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Overhead Press (Smith Machine) | 1×10 @ 50% 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Seated Lateral Raise (Dumbbell) | 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Single Arm Lateral Raise (Cable) | 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Shrug (Dumbbell) | 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Single Arm Triceps Pushdown (Cable) | 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 1:00 |
| Triceps Pushdown | 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 1:00 |
| Crunch | 2×AMRAP | — |
| Reverse Crunch | 2×AMRAP | — |
Back & Rear Delts
| Exercise | Sets × Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Pullover (Machine) | 1×10 @ 50% 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown (Cable) | 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Bent Over Row (Barbell) | 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Iso-Lateral Row (Machine) | 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Rear Delt Reverse Fly (Machine) | 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Back Extension (Hyperextension) | 1×10 @ 75% 1×10–15 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
Chest & Biceps
| Exercise | Sets × Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Incline Bench Press (Barbell) | 1×10 @ 50% 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Incline Bench Press (Smith Machine) | 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 1×1 | 2:30 |
| Incline Chest Fly (Dumbbell) | 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Cable Fly Crossovers | 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Seated Incline Curl (Dumbbell) | 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 1:00 |
| EZ Bar Biceps Curl | 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 1:00 |
Legs
| Exercise | Sets × Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Leg Extension (Machine) | 1×10 @ 50% 1×10 @ 75% 1×12–15 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Leg Press (Machine) | 1×10 @ 50% 1×10 @ 75% 1×12–15 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Hack Squat (Machine) | 1×10 @ 75% 1×12–15 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Lying Leg Curl (Machine) | 1×10 @ 50% 1×10 @ 75% 1×12–15 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Straight Leg Deadlift | 1×10 @ 75% 1×12–15 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Standing Calf Raise | 1×10 @ 75% 1×10–12 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
| Seated Calf Raise | 1×10 @ 75% 1×6–8 RPE 10 | 2:30 |
Dorian Yates HIT — common questions
What counts as failure on the working set?
The rep that will not go up despite full effort and strict form. The warmups are the opposite: his leg-day write-up keeps them nowhere near failure, just a rehearsal for the set that counts. If you finish the working set and could have done one more, it was another warmup.
Do I need a training partner?
No, but Yates had one. A partner helped him past failure with forced reps and extra negatives on one or two lifts per body part: here the Smith press, one-arm pushdown, Yates row, incline barbell press, incline dumbbell curl and leg press. Training alone, stop at failure on those as on the rest.
Why only one working set?
Yates did two working sets until late 1992. After talking training through at length with Mike Mentzer he dropped to one, and from then on he did one. Fewer sets leave more room to recover; his brand's write-up blames his plateaus on the rest days he skipped.
Is this the Blood & Guts video routine?
It is the same method, but built from his written posts and dated workout logs; the 1996 video was not one of our sources. He has said he used no drop sets or supersets when it was filmed, and there are none here.
How long is a session?
About 40–50 minutes, warmups and rests included. The working part is only six or seven all-out sets, plus the ab sets on Monday; the rest is warming up and recovering for the next one.
Is there an app that runs Dorian Yates HIT for you?
Yes. Durata runs Dorian Yates HIT as written, free: the 4-day-a-week schedule, every set and rep, and the progression built in. Log your sets and the next session's weights are worked out for you, with the stalls the program calls for; a tap on any lift shows why the weight moved. It is on iPhone and Android, works offline, and your history from Hevy or Strong imports free.
Source: Dorian Yates — Blood & Guts (DY Nutrition, in his words)
Durata is not affiliated with or endorsed by the program's author. The program structure (sets, reps, exercise selection) is presented as published methodology.
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